Coping with drought: Assessing the impacts of livestock insurance in Kenya

Posted on 7 May 2012 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

In January 2010 the index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) pilot project was launched in Marsabit District of northern Kenya as an effort to help pastoralists manage drought risk, and its pernicious ex ante and ex post effects. A Brief from the I4 Index Insurance Innovation Initiative reports results based on the impact of insurance on households’ … Continue reading →

Biodiversity / East Africa / Environment / ILRI / Kenya / NRM / Pastoralism

Lasst die Wildnis leben (Let the wilderness live)

Posted on 28 Apr 2012 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Kenya safari (photo on Flickr by Shawna Nelles). ‘Afrikas Bevölkerung wächst rasch. Das bedroht einzigartige Ökosysteme. Sind Löwe, Gnu & Co. noch zu retten? ‘Doch außerhalb der Schutzgebiete, und das ist der größte Teil der Mara-Region, verschwinden die großen Wildtiere beängstigend rasch. Besonders betroffen sind die Büffel, Warzenschweine und Wasserböcke, Elen-, Topi- und Kongoni-Antilopen, Gnus, … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / South Sudan / Sudan / Vulnerability / West Africa

FEWS NET says rainfall in Africa’s eastern Horn may be below normal again this year

Posted on 24 Apr 2012 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

FEWS Net Estimated Food Security Conditions for Mar 2012 (map credit: USAID and Famine Early Warning System Network). Bloomberg News has reported a new report from the Famine Early Warning Systems network (FEWS NET) that East African rainfall ‘may be “significantly” below average in the Horn of Africa’s main growing season, potentially threatening a region … Continue reading →

Kenya

SNV Kenya seeks qualified ‘livestock value chain experts’ for long and short term assignments

Posted on 17 Apr 2012 by ILRI Communications

SNV is a Dutch based international Development Organization that provides market based solutions for the poor through local institutions and organizations in more than 33 developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Started in 1967, SNV program in Kenya is organized in 3 sectors combined with multidisciplinary portfolio teams of about 8 … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Article / Climate Change / Drylands / East Africa / Kenya / Livelihoods / Pastoralism / Vulnerability / Women

Women playing key role in pastoralist livelihood diversification

Posted on 28 Mar 2012 by Paul Karaimu • Leave a comment

Maasai women in Kenya. Women are playing a key role in pastoralists’ diversification (picture credit: Konrad Glogowski on Flickr). A feature story carried by IRIN this week highlights how women are playing an increasingly important role in pastoralist livelihoods diversification in Kenya. ‘Along a small seasonal stream in Ewaso Nyiro village in Narok, southwestern Kenya, Leleseina … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Bangladesh / Dairying / East Africa / India / Kenya / South Asia / Value Chains

Scaling sustainable and equitable agri-food and livestock value chains

Posted on 22 Mar 2012 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

In April 2012, the ‘Seas of Change’ international learning workshop will be held in the Netherlands.To help guide the workshop, the organizers of the initiative have collated a number of case studies pointing to successes in scaling inclusive agri-food market development. Several livestock and dairy examples are included in the case studies: Bangladesh, dairy and livestock … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Production / East Africa / Kenya / Livestock / Markets / Pastoralism / Value Chains

Learning route on innovative livestock marketing in Kenya

Posted on 15 Mar 2012 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

Participants in a ‘learning route’ on Innovative Livestock Marketing just completed their trip through Kenya. Organized by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the PROCASUR Corporation, the route is a participatory practitioner-to-practitioner training to increase awareness about channels and strategies to diversify livestock production and marketing. Read stories from the route … How … Continue reading →

CCAFS / Climate Change / Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Food Security / ILRI / Kenya / Opinion piece

Are ILRI warnings of continued maize failure in Kenya’s drylands coming true?

Posted on 15 Mar 2012 by Susan MacMillan • 1 Comment

Maize plants in Kenya (photo on Flickr by Vanessa Meadu). ‘There has been a lot of talk, research, and policy documents on climate change and what this portends for the country’s food and even national security. ‘However, not much has been done on the ground to mitigate the effects of climate variability despite the knowledge. … Continue reading →

Animal Breeding / Animal Diseases / Animal Health / BecA / Biodiversity / Chickens / Disease Control / East Africa / Event / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Kenya / Poultry / Vaccines / Women

Small livestock, big impact

Posted on 8 Mar 2012 by Susan MacMillan • 1 Comment

Kenyan geneticist and new PhD Sheila Ommeh (right) works at the Biosciences eastern and central Africa Hub (BecA Hub) and ILRI’s animal health laboratories in Nairobi, Kenya, studying Africa’s native chicken breeds (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). ‘Sheila Ommeh, a poultry geneticist at the International Livestock Research Centre in Nairobi, hopes to introduce a disease-resistant chicken … Continue reading →

Africa / Drought / Drylands / Food Security / Forages / Genetics / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

Landscapes of chronic hunger: Eating food aid in empty deserts and desert slums

Posted on 5 Mar 2012 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Untitled (Desert Landscape), by Salvador Dali, 1934 (source: Wikipaintings.org). Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek has published in Foreign Policy this week a feature article, at times lyrical and elegiac, stemming from a walking trip he and his wife made last August, as a great drought gripped the Horn of Africa, across a part of the arid Turkana … Continue reading →